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Rob Ickes

Nashville, TN May 25th, 2016 — Some things you know are just meant to be, but it was still welcome news for Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley when their debut duo album, Before The Sun Goes Down, earned a Grammy nomination for the Best Bluegrass Album. And with the release of their new project, The Country Blues on July 8th, the pair build on the first one’s strengths to take their unique musical conversation to an even higher level.

Kingsport, TN -- Blue Highway has influenced two decades of musicians since the band premiered in December 1994 -- from “The Voice” contestant and Knoxville teen Emily Ann Roberts who recently cited Blue Highway as one of her first musical influences, to the 19-year old phenom the respected powerhouse band has just announced as its new member.

The Recording Academy® announced nominations for the 58th Annual GRAMMYAwards® in all 83 categories this morning. Reflecting a diverse blend of talented music makers, this year's nominees were selected from more than 21,000 submissions entered. As the only peer-based music award, the GRAMMY Awards are voted on by The Academy's membership body of creators across all disciplines of music, including recording artists, songwriters, producers, and engineers. Final-round GRAMMY® ballots will be mailed Dec. 16 and the preeminent award for excellence in music will be presented Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, live from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and broadcast on the CBS Television Network from 8 – 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

Bristol, TN/VA -- Twenty-one years ago on December 31, 1994, five young men came together in Kingsport for a performance which launched one of the most respected and influential bands in modern Bluegrass. As Blue Highway gears up for a new album and an exciting new touring season, the powerhouse band will go forward without one founding member, Rob Ickes.

Nashville, TN -- Compass Records is pleased to announce the release today of Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley's debut album, Before The Sun Goes Down. The album pairs Rob Ickes, the International Bluegrass Music Association's 15-time Dobro Player of Year and 2015 Grammy® nominee, with rising vocalist and guitarist, Trey Hensley. Ickes and Hensley’s collaboration seamlessly blends contemporary bluegrass and the spare studio stylings of classic '60s and '70s country music. It is bound to be a revelation to traditional music fans on several fronts.

Nashville, TN -- The International Bluegrass Music Association’s 15-time Dobro Player of the Year Rob Ickes and rising singer/guitarist Trey Hensley are excited to premier "My Way Is The Highway" on The Bluegrass Situation where it is currently the Song Of The Week. Their debut album, Before The Sun Goes Down, is out January 13th.

Nashville, TN -- Compass Records is pleased to announce the upcoming release from Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, Before The Sun Goes Down. The album pairs Rob Ickes, the International Bluegrass Music Association's 15-time Dobro Player of Year, with rising singer/guitarist Trey Hensley whom Ickes recently discovered while recording in the Tri-Cities area of East Tennessee.

Raleigh, NC -- Powerhouse band Blue Highway members Tim Stafford and Rob Ickes were among the award winners as the brightest stars in Bluegrass gathered on Thursday evening for the 25th Annual IBMA Awards at Raleigh's Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts.

Nashville, TN -- Compass Records is pleased to announce the signing of bluegrass and traditional country-infused duo Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley to the label. Their debut collaboration, Before The Sun Goes Down, slated for a January 2015 release, pairs the International Bluegrass Music Association's 15 time Dobro Player of Year, Ickes, with the up and coming singer/guitarist, Hensley, whom Ickes recently discovered in a stroke of good luck. Says Ickes, "Last year, when we were working on the latest Blue Highway album, The Game, we needed a scratch vocal done on one song so we could play live without having to go back and replace the vocal.

Nashville, TN -- Three Bells will be released by Rounder on September 16, 2014. The album, a historic collaboration between fellow Dobro masters Jerry Douglas, Mike Auldridge, and Rob Ickes, marks a personally-charged landmark in all three gentlemen’s expansive bodies of work. In addition to marking the three musicians' first work together since 1994's Grammy-winning The Great Dobro Sessions, Three Bells features the final recordings of Douglas' and Ickes’ longtime friend and mentor Auldridge, who passed away on December 28, 2012, shortly after the recording sessions were completed.
first work together since 1994

Scores of bluegrass artists converged on Shelby, North Carolina Saturday for the grand opening of the Earl Scruggs Center: Music & Stories from the American South. The celebration include bluegrass, country and Americana artists who have either been influenced by Scruggs or have performed with him. Earl Scruggs is credited with the 3-Finger picking style that has become a trademark of bluegrass. Scruggs also performed many other styles and with a broad range of performers.

Shelby, NC -- The Earl Scruggs Center will celebrate their Grand Opening of Scruggs Center: Music & Stories from the American South Saturday, January 11, 2014 at 7PM. An array of bluegrass music artists will be sharing in the celebration events. Sam Bush will be performing for The Earl Scruggs Center Grand Opening event. 'Remembering Earl: Music & Stories' will feature performances by Sam Bush alongside Vince Gill, Travis Tritt, Rob Ickes, Jim Mills, Gary Scruggs and Randy Scruggs. The center, Earl Scruggs Center: Music & Stories from the American South, is a tribute to Cleveland County native, Earl Scruggs, credited with the 3-finger style of playing the 5-string banjo that is a centerpiece of bluegrass music.

“The Game,” the title cut of Blue Highway’s new album, is the tale of a rollicking gambler, stylistically kin to songs like the venerable “Wild Bill Jones,” and other bad man ballads. It is rife with recklessness, immoral behavior, and gunplay. It is the kind of stuff that abounds in the earliest bluegrass, yet is a new original song. It was written by Blue Highway’s Shawn Lane and Alison Krauss’ bass player Barry Bales, and sung by Lane with all the fierceness in his wild tenor voice.

Alan Jackson shares a concept held by many other artists -- he wants to release a bluegrass music album. This September, he will get his wish when he releases The Bluegrass Album. Schedule for a September 24 release date, Jackson invited bluegrass artists Adam Steffey, Sammy Shelor, Tim Crouch, Scott Coney, Rob Ickes and Tim Dishman to join him on this exciting project. Jackson claims he's always wanted to do a bluegrass album.